Medical images, such as X-rays, CAT (computerized axial tomography) scans, and MRI's (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), may be digitized to facilitate remote reading by doctors at remote locations. A hospital may use systems that capture and digitize the images and transmit them to a remote image server, such as a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). The transmission may occur over a network, such as an intranet or the Internet.
Additionally, the hospital may also transmit orders corresponding to the images to an order server, such as a Radiologist Information System (RIS). The orders may be requests for a doctor to interpret, or read, the images and return a diagnostic report. Orders may also contain information, such as a patient identifier, the procedure type associated with the image, patient demographic information, and a hospital identifier.
Some systems route the images and orders to doctors in a fixed manner. For example, all of the images and orders may be transmitted from the scanning area of a hospital to a set of doctors that work in the radiology department of the same hospital. The doctors may be at the hospital or at remote systems. Other systems route the images and orders to doctors based on data included in the image headers, such as information about the body area that is scanned. For example, if the image header includes information that specifies that the image is a head scan, the image and the associated order may be transmitted from the scanning area of the hospital to doctors that work in the neurology department of the hospital instead of to doctors that work in the urology department.
After receipt of the images and orders, the radiologist may analyze the image and return the diagnostic report using the remote system. The diagnostic report may be transmitted through the network to the order server, which may send the report to the hospital or other medical facility that originally transmitted the order and images corresponding to the report.
Synapse from FUJIFILM Medical Systems, Stamford, Conn. allows doctors to subscribe to a folder on a PACS. When new content arrives in that folder, a doctor receives notification that the content has arrived. The new content may be cached or stored on the doctor's remote system for viewing.